Educating the Postmodern Child: The Struggle for Learning in a World of Virtual Realities [Paperback]

Educating the Postmodern Childtraces the philosophical challenges posed by children living in an information age. Fiachra Long explores the construction of childhood in today's society arguing that the postmodern child is exposed to the public world before its time and he explores the significance of this public/ private shift.

Issues considered include education, appearance, space, empowerment, globality, tactility, talent, and visibility. After setting the context, each chapter uses a phenomenological approach to describe experiences common across computer-literate children today. Chapters draw on sources in the history of ideas to critique the situation described, provide a rich combination of educational and philosophical theory and apply some speculative concepts to the situation of children.

This exciting exploration of the world of the child in our time draws on Fiachra Long's immense erudition and on his many years' experience as a philosopher and teacher. Based on careful reading of historical and contemporary literature taken from many sources,Educating the Postmodern Childgives evidence of the author's personal engagement with the issues that he addresses. Fiachra Long succeeds in showing that scholarly inquiry can in fact be extraordinarily interesting. The volume therefore deserves to be read not only by those within the philosophical and educational communities but also by parents and by young people themselves. Kevin Williams, Senior Lecturer in Education, Mater Dei Institute of Education, Dublin City University, Ireland

Fiachra Long's elegant prose teases out the complexities of the postmodern child, offering unique insights and extending the field of childhood studies in new directions. This ground-breaking book challenges the consumer mind-set so prevalent in contemporary education and it cements the case for pls%